Real Friends
by SunnyHinata
Summary: Eveyone has to have at least one real friend, and when you find them, you want to thank the heavens... but you'll settle for a short insight into your friendship.


**_Real Friends_**

**Are the reason you have no food**

"Shikamaru! Where are my sugar-coated fruity pebbles?" demanded Shikaku, closing the kitchen cupboard.

Shikamaru continued doing his crossword puzzle from the table. His dad abandoned the cabinets and opened the refrigerator door.

"Where are my ribs?" Shikaku closed the refrigerator, bent over and pushed open the revolving cupboard. "Where are my favorite chips!?"

"Dad, if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm not telling you."

"Oh," was his only reply. "Choji was over, wasn't he?"

**Treat your house like their house**

Ino rushed up to her best friend's house, and without knocking, opened the door. "Honey, I'm home," she observed, grinning like a child.

"Ino!" Sakura's mother said happily from the kitchen sink. "Sakura's in her room. Just go on up!"

"Will do, Mrs. H!" Ino called while running up the stair case and down the hallway to her friend's room. "Forehead," she greeted.

"Pig," Sakura half-heartedly said from her closet, busily organizing clothes.

She dropped her bag onto Sakura's floor and flopped down on Sakura's bed. "Did you get new sheets?"

**Would take the fall with you**

"Alright, I'll come get you two in about ten minutes for your phone calls," the guard told the boys from outside the cell. He walked away as the boy with the bowl-cut began a conversation with his jail mate.

"Oh, come on, Neji," Lee started, "You are the one that went along with it!"

Nothing was said, but white eyes looked up to Lee. "This is all your fault," Neji said distastefully.

"I know. And yet, here we both are."

**Know what you're doing at any given moment of the day**

Kakashi sat alone against the side of a great oak tree. His adult book lay forgotten next to him for the moment as he contemplated his newest failure.

"I knew I'd find you here," Iruka said smartly, emerging from the bushes with a candid smile on his face, just waiting for Kakashi's smart reply.

"You never know what direction I'm going to go," Kakashi said none too seriously, glancing at Iruka. "I'm just like the wind."

"Not quite. It's ten o'clock: time to brood in the woods."

**Keep things from you that they were only supposed to be borrowing**

"What the hell is that?!" Kiba screeched, removing his hand from his backpack.

"What?" asked Hinata, leaning over to peer inside his knapsack pocket. "Kiba…" she stated simply, putting her face in her hands.

"What did he do?" Shino seemingly oozed out from behind a tree nearby as he asked the question.

"Check for yourself," Hinata said, scooting away from Kiba on the picnic blanket they were sharing.

Shino considered Kiba's bag for a moment before sending out a few bugs from his arm. This was Kiba after all, and Shino could never be too careful.

The bugs flew down to the bag, and then turned back to their master. "What?" Shino asked impatiently. The bugs buzzed in protest. "Do it or no dessert tonight." They flew down to the hell-hole of a book bag and dove in. Re-emerging seconds later, they made a beeline to Shino's jacket.

"What do they think it is?" Kiba asked mockingly with a grin on his face.

"Well, they think it is some kind of weapon, but I seem to recall lending it to you about a year ago to clean a toilet on a mission. It's a-"

"Toothbrush," Hinata finished with a grimace, sticking out her tongue.

"Well jeeze, I thought that was one of Akamaru's old puppy toys or something!" Kiba started to laugh hysterically.

"Bark!" Akamaru cried resentfully. Kiba understood it as, "It's a moldy toothbrush, for god's sake!"

"Yeah, well it could have been!" Kiba argued back to his dog.

**Have a list of direct quotes from you stored in their head**

"Remember that time?"

"Yes, and he was like, 'I will kill you!'" Temari and Kankuro were on the floor with a photo album in hand, laughing hard at their younger brother from years past.

"Oh yeah, and remember 'I love only myself!'? That took the cake!" Temari said, pointing to a picture of Gaara sitting on their rooftop with a disgusted expression on his face.

"No, no!" Kankuro started in a mock voice, "'I need blood'!" the two continued to laugh until their brother broke the silence.

"Just because I'm Kazekage doesn't mean I can't kill you," Gaara said angrily from his arm chair across the room. He faced their fire place with a scowl on his face while his brother and sister conversed happily behind him.

"But we know you won't kill us. That's the best part!" Temari retorted.

Gaara grabbed the arms of his chair forcefully before mumbling something sinister and standing up from his seat. He reached for his paperwork that sat on the table next to him as Kankuro pointed out another picture from inside their book. Temari ignored it and made a play off of Gaara's mood.

"Alright, calm down Mr. Grumpy." Gaara snapped and grabbed a porcelain figurine from a stand near him, chucking it at his siblings. It missed by a couple of inches and smashed on the floor near Temari's foot. The two giddy siblings stared it blankly before grinning.

"Clean it up!" Gaara yelled testily, leaving the room.

"Jeeze, what got under his sand?" Kankuro said as he and Temari immediately busted up again.

**Stay with you for life**

Down at the village gates, Kotetsu and Izumo sat inside of the guard booth playing a game of cards to pass the time by. "I don't see why someone else couldn't have done this," Kotetsu complained. "We've had guard duty for three days in a row."

"I know," Izumo agreed. "It's not like Genma has anything to do." A boisterous holler interrupted their conversation. The two shinobi looked out of the post to see a small mass of black against the trees, quickly approaching the village gates. "Who in the world…?"

"Oi!" one of the voices projected. "It's us! The greatest retrieval team in the world!"

"That sounds like…" Both the guards began at the same time.

"Shut up, idiot. Don't get such a big head," a deep, sullen voice commented as they got closer.

The mass began to separate into several people, all of which had ninja headbands on. Kotetsu recognized Yamato and Kakashi, and dubbed the intruders safe.

"It's us, and we have a surprise!" a pink haired girl called out happily as the rest of them came close enough to be identified. Sakura grinned and hoped that Sai wouldn't say anything to provoke their captured friend.

"It _is_ them!" Izumo yelled gleefully, leaning off the side of the enclosure and falling.

"Yes it's us. And we have Sasuke Uchiha."

-

"You just don't understand," Sakura said, smiling up at Sasuke from their spot at Ichiraku Ramen.

"You will never understand," Naruto observed in a mock impression of Sasuke from Team 7's younger years.

"It's really quite simple," Kakashi stated as Yamato nodded.

"Even I agree with the hag over there," Sai admitted, pointing his finger in Sakura's direction.

Disregarding Sai's statement, Sakura sucked some noodles in her mouth, doing an amazing impression of Naruto. She swallowed them and then said, "We are here for life."

* * *

redo of the original


End file.
